CME: Futures Close Mostly Down, Tuesday

US - Live cattle futures ended Tuesday with close contracts 7.5 to 20 cents lower and deferreds unchanged to 17.5 cents lower.
calendar icon 21 August 2013
clock icon 2 minute read

August live cattle closed down 20 cents at $123.85. 

Trading has been limited and only expected to begin on Thursday or Friday as feedlot expectations ad packer bids have been reported as being several dollars apart by ProFarmer analysts. 

October cattle closed just 7 higher on the day with a narrow range. In fact, the last 6 closes have been within a 25 point range (127.92-128.17).

February cattle closed 1 tick lower on the session but have closed higher in 6 of the previous 7 sessions. The market saw choppy and two-sided trade early but were trading slightly lower on the day into the mid-session.

After higher beef prices again yesterday, there is more and more talk that cash could trade higher this week and this helped to provide some support. Traders see tighter supply and firm demand as reasons to suspect higher cash trade this week and strong packer margins may help as well.

Ideas that there could be a lull in demand after retailers are done booking for Labor Day plus talk of the premium of futures to cash were factors which may have sparked some selling into the mid-day.

Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session came in at $195.52, up 30 cents on the day and up from $190.32 last week at this time.

Slaughter came in above trade expectations at 124,000 head which can sometimes indicate strong demand from the packer.

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